Wow, beautiful -- although surprising! I remember you mentioned you were growing Lilian's Yellow. I recently read Craig LeHoullier's book "Epic Tomatoes" (hard copy better! I found at library) and he really goes on and on about how much he loves it. I hope your two other plants turn out to be true.

I went to Tatiania's TomatoBase (do you know about this? Wonderful resource) and put in the terms "orange potato" and here's the list of results. I didn't define a size (since that's pretty large for a cherry, may be saladette) but the list isn't too long to browse through.

Orange potato leaf varieties - watch out, some are regular too

Just realized a few regular leafs come up with this search - read through the descriptions.

Well, then again, I just kind of took a quick peek at those entries and there doesn't seem to be one that matches well. Perhaps if we're lucky, Carolyn will chime in.

How do they taste?

I live near Craig and get all my dwarf plants from him. He told me to try Lillian's yellow years ago and I did, but that was the year of the great herbicide disaster. So excited to try it this year. I tried tatianna's data base but you can only search by one category.....if I could put in orange.....then cherry...then potato leaf I think I could find it. But you can only search by leaf, color or size. I couldn't find anything. His book is great isn't it! This may be some kind of cross also.

Jennie

Oh gosh I didn't even think of the fact that you are in the same state - and lucky you to even live near him!!

I just put in "orange potato" in the search box, and it did bring up some erroneous results, but also some good ones. I do wish there were some boxes on the left by which we could narrow things down :)

His book is great - I bought the Kindle version for like $2 on sale and all the info is there - but I am glad I also checked out the hard copy, and may buy one for myself. The Kindle version is missing a lot of pictures and the sidebars don't translate well.

and the pictures in the book version are so wonderful....very vivid.

taste, well I got overly anxious and cut it befor it was ripe. So early it had a green core, But it had a tomato taste without sweetness, which I am thankful for. Don't like candy tomatoes. So it is not sweet.

What if it were an accidental cross? Lillian's Yellow is a PL variety, so that sounds like a reasonable theory.

'Yellow Perfection' is a little bit orange :-)

PC

That would be interesting, PC! Jennie, where did you get the seed?

Interesting variety, small enough to use as cherries, but big enough where you don't have to fumble with hundreds of them during cooking/processing.

I'm betting it'll have a more rounded out flavor when fully ripe, i wonder if the skin will turn a deeper orange too.

Since the combined traits seem to be rare, and unless it's a spitter, i'd hold onto seed to see what sort of offspring it produces next season. If it is an accidental F1 cross, then next season's F2 results may be an eye opener.

Steve.

I think it will have a better flavor when ripe also, wasn't bad at unripe stage. I won't be so anxious next time. Have probably 30 fruit set on this plant, unheard of this time of year. Think I will email the seed producer, a very reputable source, to see if it may be a stray seed of what she has grown. Or a possible cross. Still hope my other plants are true.

Jennie

I emailed Craig, since he has such knowledge of varieties. He said he knew of no orange potato leaf cherries. He said it was probably either a cross of PL x PL or a prior cross that is showing some PL in the F2 or beyond. He also suggested saving seed to see what it does in future grow outs. Now I am really anxious to taste a fully ripe one! I will send Craig a few tomatoes also to see what he thinks and for him to save seeds if he thinks they are worth it. What fun!

Jennie

When you stabilize it we'll call it Jennie!

Oh Jenn, I don"t have the space nor the expertice to do a real proper grow out. You have to grow many plants and keep selecting from the best ones. My husband retires next year and we move back to Tennessee. We are considering a patio home with just a small courtyard area with hopefully enough sun for a few containers. Going back and forth on this though. And this fall I will go to Tennesse to help my daughter build a raised garden, and help her start a garden next spring. If it tastes really good, I will save seeds and grow one next year to see what it turns out like. Be fun just to see. But I won't be trying to develop a new tomato. :-)

Jennie

Tatiana said this could also be a genetic mutation, although they are rare. She knows of no orange potato leaf "salads" as she called the size. This terrifies me to even have this tomato in my yard! I am sending seed to Tatiana and tomatoes to Craig for him to taste as soon as I can. Will let them decide what to do with this!

Jennie

Well, maybe someone else will grow it out and name it Jennie... it's a nice fantasy anyway... ;-)

'Jennie's Treasure' sounds like a good name to me. If I were looking through a seed catalog and came across a tomato with that name I'd have to read the description. And I'm not really a tomato guy so I pretty much only read the names of them unless one catches my eye.

Rodney

Rodney, that's even better!!! GRIN

Ha Ha Rodney! It's actually Tatiana's seed, I was just the recipient of it. So if it actually becomes a variety, which is probably a long shot, I think naming rights are hers. I just hope I don't somehow kill this plant off before I can get seed! And of course there is taste. Hopefully it will be a real yummy tomato. I'll keep you updated!

Jennie

This is one prolific plant. I just counted the fruits on this plant...62 on 9 trusses, with 7 more trusses of blossoms and above that about 5 different clusters of buds!!! It is a much smaller plant than the Lillian's Yellow ( behind in the picture below, which is true as the first tiny fruits are oblate) and the leaves on mystery plant are much smaller and smoother than LYH. Even has a different growth pattern. Can't wait for some to fully ripen so I can see what they taste like.

Chuck Wyatt sold seed of Orange Potato Leaf Cherry on his website. I got a package years ago and still have seed and grow them from time to time. I have plants this year. Look through this link and you will find a listing for them.

http://www.heirloomtomatoes.net/Varieties.html

Hope it has yummy genes Jennie if you decide to be its custodian, a Lilliput version of Lillian's tomato sounds cute ;-) Especially if there are lots of orange Lilliputians!

from Chuck Wyatt's memorial site/fusion:

"Orange Potato Leaf Cherry - Cherry, Orange, Potato leaf. Variety not
know."[sic]

Looks like an orphan to me ...

PC

Fusion, can you tell me more about the orange cherry you are growing? What size are the fruit and how does it taste? Growth habit? It must be good if you have grown it a number of years. PC, I hope this one tastes good! Because it sure has a lot of fruit on it! And it just keeps pumping out more. None of my other plants are loaded like this one, even my other cherry.

Jennie

Jennie, it is most likely that you are growing an F1 bee made hybrid. I mentioned Chuck Wyatt's Orange PL Cherry because there were statements above that indicated one did not exist. The genes for cherry size are highly dominant over the fasciated gene. Crossing a large potato leaf fasciated like LYH to just about any cherry will result in large cherry size fruit. From the look of yours, I think the cross was to a red variety. When a red and some yellows are crossed, the F1 fruit appear salmon colored with hints of pink/red. That is what I see in your fruit. It is still interesting and perhaps worth saving seed to see what grows from it next year.

Thanks Fusion, that is so helpful! I know so little about breeding tomatoes. I was wondering what the other "parent" might be. It could very well be some potato leaf red cherry since I do know potato leaf is recessive. And thanks for the information about Chuck Wyatt's Orange PL Cherry. Will be interesting to see how this hybrid tastes. Hopefully good, otherwise what am I going to do with all these fruits! ;-) Of the three plants from LYH seed, one is true, one is this orange salad size fruit. Still waiting on the third to see what that turns out to be. It is a smaller plant, like the cherry. But doesn't have the cherry like trusses on it and no fruit set yet.

So how are things going with this mystery tomato?

Rodney

I have a red cherry like that. Fruit size just under 1 oz. It is RL.That is the size I like. Did not like Sweet 100. They were too small for me.

I will post a picture when I get the next ripe one.

Sey

Sey, these are 1.5 to 2.0 ounces and are a perfect size for cutting up in salads.

Jennie